


Take My Hand

by MsSirEy



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Reveal, buckles are required, pure action, with angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-10 19:16:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12918483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsSirEy/pseuds/MsSirEy
Summary: Why Kara did not let go.A rewriting of the plane scene (in 3x05). Y'all know the one. It is a little different. Read to see XD





	Take My Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I received the prompt, from an anon: My emotions are all over the place I can't prompt properly but Kara needs to make some serious steamy love to Lena and reassure her she's a good person and is so very loved.
> 
> My original reaction: Lemme tell you, friend, I am also a mess. I do want to say that I don’t necessarily think the scene, as written, needed changing. I really loved it. The things that go unspoken are so powerful. But, given that it was my probably my favorite from the episode, I wanted to center this piece around it, and, thus, it required a bit of tweaking.
> 
> My now: I wrote smut to end this, but it didn't fit as it was, so I got rid of it. But, then I stalled out and have been sitting on this for too long. I meant to write a different ending, but couldn't get the words to happen. So, maybe it'll happen, but for now, here is this bit.
> 
> Buckle up and enjoy!

For Kara, it was not often that she felt like things were moving too quickly, but from the moment she caught up to the plane, she felt powerless. She could not spare a thought to how the plane was being controlled, all she knew was it was going down.

With her hands pressed to the ceiling of the cargo hold, she shouldered the problem, pitted her strength against it. She could hear the metal tearing and sent a silent prayer to Rao that it would hold, just long enough to render the engines useless. That was all she needed.

The fissure divided the plane, with the barrels of toxic chemicals in one section and Lena in the other. As tired and out of breath as she was, she managed to snag both parts and slow their descent. They were falling, all of them, toward the Earth. Her grip was not perfect, her fingers dug into the metal, but the more she squeezed, the more she weakened the structure of the frame. The body of the plane was not designed to support the weight placed upon it, not with such a small point of tension.

She knew what it meant, knew what it required. And it hurt, more than the burn of her straining muscles.

She had to choose.

She could keep the barrels from contaminating the water or she could save Lena.

An impossible decision.

Except she had made that decision, before. She had given up someone she loved for the sake of the humans of National City. It haunted her, but she still knew it was right.

She was the one who could put aside her feelings. Not Clark. Not Alex. Her.

And Lena was begging her. Lena did not want that blood on her hands. She was the real hero. She was better than Kara, in that moment, willing to sacrifice herself without hesitation.

But the decision was in Kara’s hands and as her grip slipped, she found herself considering letting the barrels go. _We can deal with the consequences._

She did not know if they could, but without an alternative, she was willing to bet. And in the moments while she tried to both ignore Lena’s begging and engrave it in her memory, in case it was the last thing she could hold onto, she thought about why it was not an easier decision. Her friend was not worth the potential lives of millions. Her friend was ready to die.

She would always hesitate, no matter whose life was in her hands, but she had thought saving Alex was the only choice she might make selfishly. And yet, with the metal creaking in her grip, threatening to make the decision for her, she could not let Lena fall.

“Lena,” she screamed, “I can’t-”

“You have to,” Lena pleaded.

 “But I love you,” she voiced, without thought. There was a moment where both women were caught by surprise, but with tears streaming down her face, Kara realized the truth of it. “Lena, it’s me- Kara. I need you to live.” She could hardly see through the watery blur that stung her eyes. “Please,” she begged, seeking permission to let the barrels fall, desperate for Lena to allow her.

In her hopelessness, she had a moment of clarity.

“Climb!”

There was a moment that she thought Lena might refuse, but then Lena was in motion. She begged Lena to climb, tried to make it encouraging, but needed her to move faster. She tried to shift her fingers, to better spread the weight of the plane, to buy Lena time. She could not move too much, for fear that even the slightest budge could strain the metal passed its tensile strength.

She let out a pained cry, directed at the sky, an outlet for all her fear and frustration. It covered the words she could not find to ask Rao to let Lena make it. She blinked away her tears in time to feel the metal give. She turned her head down to see that Lena had not quite reached her. “Lena, jump!”

Their eyes locked as her fingers slipped. She implored Lena to know what she was trying to convey. If she could have given Lena her strength in that moment, she would have, but all she could offer was frantic encouragement, stained with panic.

Kara let the plane fall as Lena jumped, praying she had timed it right. She forgot about the other half and the chemicals it contained. She disregarded the entire debate she had struggled through. All she could see was Lena’s outstretched hand, still so far from hers. She descended, outpacing the plane she still held, until her free hand wrapped around Lena’s wrist. She felt Lena’s fingers grip her arm and it was the most secure she had felt in months.

Her chest shook as her body was overtaken by shivers, the adrenaline making her nerves buzz. She sent a silent prayer of thanks to the sky - Rao was still looking out for her. She lifted Lena slowly, careful of her fragile human wrist, until Lena’s free arm was around her shoulder, supporting her weight.

She ducked her head into the crook of Lena’s shoulder, muttering a stream of gratitude, as her tears soaked into Lena’s jacket. She was afraid to let go of Lena’s hand, but knew she needed it to use it to support the plane.

“Hold on tight.” She turned her head to look Lena in the eye, reddened and dilated, but steady as she stared back. Lena nodded and let go of her hand, both arms hooked behind Kara’s neck. Kara shifted her hand around Lena and gripped the plane with both hands.

With more control, she hastened a landing, easing the plane to the ground a fair distance from the water.

~ oOoOo ~

The alcohol still clouded her senses as Lena fumbled through the cockpit, scrambling to take in her surroundings, to  connect the flight system to one she recognized, but realizing that she would not be able to manually override it. She grabbed the headset, not expecting it to have signal, but spoke as rapidly as she could. She needed someone to know the danger headed toward the city.

Static. It sounded funny in her head, mixing and blurring. She might have cursed, but she did not feel she had the time. Her heart dropped as the bay opened. The chemicals were on a pallet and it had just been released. She grabbed a stray metal bar and jammed it through the hook, caught the ridge of the lock, and threw her weight behind it. She knew it would not hold, not forever, but she had to try, even as the plane tilted and she felt the gravity begin to work against her.

This was not how it was supposed to happen. She was innocent. The guilty party was supposed to pay. Why did she have to be wrapped up in the demons of others to the point that they became hers, amassed together and swarming in droves? It took everything she had to stand tall and not believe their whispers. And in that night, she hadn’t. She had given in, heeded their lies, and danced to their song.

She had confronted Edge, on his terms, played his game while the fog of wine muted her ability to think multiple steps in advance. She just wanted to end the threat, to her and to others. Instead she was buying people mere seconds, before the barrels inevitably met the water below.

The rush of the wind changed and for a moment she thought it was the bar finally giving way, but from the corner of her eye she saw blue and red. Her breath caught at the sight of Supergirl: jaw set, eyes darting. Lena exhaled, allowing it to carry away a fraction of the certainty she had held about her death that night.

Supergirl located the lever that resealed the bay and the air went still. She hardly dared to make a sound, but a smile briefly overtook her.

And then she felt her stomach rise as the plane began a sharp decline. It was going to crash!

“The barrels are treated to dissolve in water,” she hastily explained. “If the plane crashes, they’ll poison everyone.”

Supergirl pushed the plane up from within and the jarring motion nearly knocked Lena to the ground. “I'm going to make him blow the engine,” she called. Lena threw herself toward the seat at the side of the plane, fumbling to get the straps over herself, as her head sloshed and pulled to one side, the alcohol lingering in her system taking it toll.

She finally found the buckles, the metal cold against her skin as she tried to match one side to the other. She heard the plane tear in two before she felt her whole world tip, a sharp grinding of metal that made her teeth ache. The two halves of the plane collided and she was dislodged from her seat, her hands frantically seeking out the straps as the material bit into her wrists. But her grip was too loose and uncoordinated, and she was falling into the belly of the plane.

As her back hit the door to the cockpit, the air was forced from her lungs and fire burned in her chest as she tried to make her body cooperate. As her heart rate spiked, she tried to remind herself that Supergirl was there. The plane was no longer falling. She was not falling. She was not going to die tonight.

“I can't hold both!” Supergirl called down.

Lena's stomach dropped and threatened to betray her. She closed her eyes and for a moment blocked out the world. She knew what was expected of her, a Luthor. Other people put themselves first, but she knew she had to stand tall, in her final moment, as she had throughout her life, if only to spite her mocking demons.

“Save the chemicals! Not me!” she called back.

Supergirl looked sick at the idea. “No! I’m not going to drop you.”

“Let me go,” Lena tried again, needing Supergirl to listen to her, to accept her wishes. She had to die, to put a permanent mark of good on the world. She wanted it. She wanted to die.

Supergirl stopped listening, her face blank. Lena continued screaming, pleading, her voice hoarse, as she hoped Supergirl was preparing herself to let Lena die.

“No.”

Lena’s fears were determined to rear their head.

“Lena,” Supergirl screamed, “I can’t-”

“You have to,” Lena pleaded.

“But I love you,” the hero called back. Lena couldn’t process the words. Something was missing. She did not even really talk to Supergirl outside of their occasional instances of working together. She had saved Lena many times, but there had never been any hint that she had cared, beyond her connection to-

“Lena, it’s me- Kara. I need you to live.” _Kara_. Her best friend. Her best friend, who she was willing to ignore her feelings for in order to maintain that friendship. The person she wanted to open up to, despite how much it scared her. The person she felt like herself around.The person she was most desperately going to miss, and perhaps the only one who would miss her. “Please,” Kara begged, her voice strained and cracking.

Why did she have to be tempted in those last moments? She had already resigned, but if Kara asked her, she could almost bare the thought of her selfishness. If Kara would not judge her lapse. If Kara would not blame her for the harm. If Kara wanted her to live.

Then, as she had done many times, Kara saved her. Saved her from having to make that choice.

“Climb!” Kara screamed.

That was the solution. She just had to reach Kara. She could save the people without having to die.

A calm came over her. She surged forward, upward. She forgot the pain in her limbs and back as she lifted herself. She ignored the numbness in her hands as she grabbed the metal slotting, hoisting herself. She climbed with Kara urging her.

And then Kara screamed and it pierced Lena’s heart, almost stopping her in her tracks. She looked up to see she still had some bars left and that Kara’s eyes were wide with panic. “Lena, jump!”

Lena could not breathe. Outside of the plane, they were thousands of feet in the air. Her joints locked up and she felt ice crawl up her spine. Her eyes welled up.

Kara’s face shifted. It smoothed out. There was a glimmer in her eye. It was Kara. _Her_ Kara.

Lena jumped.

She thrust her hand up, but for a moment there was nothing. She stopped rising.

Kara’s hand caught her wrist. She never fell.

She watched the plane plunge into the water, far below them. It could have been her. But it wasn’t. Her head turned up as Kara lifted her.

She had been there before, in Supergirl’s arms, but never had it felt quite as stable. She threw her arm around Kara’s shoulders and saw the way her face was wet with tears. Kara’s head dropped to her shoulder, muttering things Lena could not hear over the wind, and she felt her heart squeeze.

When Kara looked at her again, she said, “hold on tight.” Lena realized she was still holding Kara’s hand and she nodded, releasing her. She put her other arm around Kara and closed her eyes. She trusted Kara to take care of the rest.

When her feet were finally on the ground, Lena’s knees gave out, but Kara’s hands found her hips, supporting her. “Thank you,” she breathed.

“Of course, Lena,” Kara returned, her voice quiet. “I will always protect you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all had a fun time with this! Be sure to let me know XD
> 
> Find me on tumblr: mssirey


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